Classic Doctor Who 13x03 "Pyramids of Mars" eps 3-4 full reaction
Added 2023-06-18 23:01:39 +0000 UTCComments
True! I'm a little surprised myself to learn how popular this arc is! I'm glad I didn't know ahead of time, so I could just experience it for myself. :-)
Fourth Wall Reactions
2023-06-25 20:19:06 +0000 UTCThe reason why Sutekh's voice sounds familiar to you is because Gabriel Woolf, the actor who plays him, returned to voice the Beast in the tenth Doctor series 2 story, The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit. That's the story that also first introduced the Ood. I do find your lukewarm reaction to this story interesting and somewhat surprising, considering this story's lofty reputation. I guess we can't all like the same things!
Azmat Mahmood
2023-06-19 22:20:31 +0000 UTCPyramids of Mars is widely regarded as one of the best DW stories of all time. I don't hold it in quite as high regard personally and the main reason for that is part four. It's still a good episode and serves its purpose as a solid conclusion to the story, but it just doesn't measure up to the first three parts which are some of the best episodes in classic Who. The story as a whole is still clearly absolutely brilliant though. Egyptian mythology explored through the lense of DW works so well here that it's a wonder no one had tried it before and it's a shame no one has tried it since. This is also one of the first stories to pay homage to a classic horror film in this era, choosing The Mummy as the source for its inspiration. This will become a habit of Phillip Hinchcliffe (incumbent producer) and Robert Holmes (incumbent script editor) and somehow they make it work pretty much every time. Gabriel Woolf as Sutekh is absolutely chilling. I love his performance, it's incredible. He exudes quiet menace with every word he speaks and manages to make Sutekh incredibly intimidating and powerful, even though he's unable to move for 98% of the story. It's a masterclass in less is more and he's easily one of the greatest villains ever. I also love how effectively they're able to convey the danger Sutekh poses, the alternate time scene in the TARDIS is the best example of this. It's really scary to see the destruction Sutekh would cause if he's able to escape and also establishes that time is constantly shifting and moving, always in flux. Oh, and Sarah Jane saying she's from 1980 complicates the UNIT dating controversy even further...😅 The other highlight of this story is Tom Baker's ultra-intense, serious performance. You really get the sense that the Doctor isn't sure he can win this time and even fears Sutekh. The scenes inside Sutekh's chamber are pretty terrifying because it's very rare to see the Doctor so completely vulnerable. With that being said, the Doctor also feels very cold and detached here. There's a reason why many people say the fourth Doctor is the most alien of them all and this is one of the stories I would recommend people to see the fourth Doctor at his most alien. The scene inside the TARDIS at the very beginning sets the tone for the rest of the story and is a fascinating insight into the mind of the Doctor at this point. It feels like the Doctor has the weight of the universe on his shoulders and it seems like he's almost having an existential crisis. He's finally starting to feel the effects of his long life and this is something that hasn't really been explored in the show before this. It's really interesting. The way the Doctor reacts to certain things and some of the things he says and the way he says them is actually quite unsettling and feels very fitting for a story like this. They make the Doctor almost as alien and unknowable as Sutekh, so he seems a suitable adversary for him and it just perfectly fits the general bleak tone of this story. I also love the emotional subplot with the Scarman brothers and the scene where Laurence tries to get Marcus to snap out of it by showing him a photograph of them as children is heartbreaking, especially because he fails and Marcus kills him anyway and this leads directly to another one of this story's best moments. The Doctor and Sarah's contrasting reactions to Laurence Scarman's death is incredibly interesting. It's shocking to see the Doctor brush off his death so quickly, but it only highlights that he's an alien being that's lived hundreds of years. He can see the bigger picture and knows he doesn't have the time to mourn Scarman's death because more people will die if he doesn't put a stop to Sutekh once and for all. It's incredibly compelling material for Tom Baker and a really brave direction to take the Doctor's character in. It could've gone horribly wrong, but the writing and Tom Baker's exemplary performance really make it work. A pivotal part of this is also Liz Sladen as Sarah Jane, I really can't say enough good things about her at this point. Without her presence the fourth Doctor would probably come across as really unlikable, but she manages to drag out the warmth and, for want of a better word, humanity in him by injecting certain scenes with some lovely humour. She really is a grounding influence on the Doctor and prevents him from totally losing perspective. A great example of this is the aforementioned scene in the TARDIS, her slightly mocking "oh I know you're a Time Lord" is wonderful. The fourth Doctor and Sarah Jane are a match made in heaven. Btw, Stephen Harris is just a pseudonym. The original scripts were written by someone called Lewis Greifer, but they were considered unusable, so Robert Holmes stepped in and extensively rewrote the whole thing. So yeah, you can add Pyramids of Mars to the already quite lengthy list of Robert Homes classics.
Azmat Mahmood
2023-06-19 04:03:42 +0000 UTC
